New to this

[Guest MUM]

Hi

 

I am new to trading and so far have completed the beginner IG academy modules and started to use the demo. I am now familier with the terms and able to navigate the demo site, however I have no idea where to start in terms of trading and making calculated decisions. Can anyone help and point me in the right direction. 

 

1. Which is best to trade as a new starter? Forex, Shares, Indices etc?

2. What is the best way to decide when to place a bet if spread betting? Is there any place I can go to for recommendations?

3. I was reading online that 82% of people make more losses than profit when spread betting? there must be some kind of stratergy to it which means this can be reduced (apart from applying stop loss) ?

 

Thank you in advance to anyone who replies

[Caseynotes]

Hi   Once you have gone through the IG education package I can recommend Tradeciety.com for further free learning and ideas.

[Guest oilfxpro]

Hi mum

 

I have traded commodities, forex  and indices for many years .I can not advise you what to trade.

 

1)The easiest ones for me are indices, I found commodities and forex  wild & too volatile and unpredictable to make money.

 There are plenty of threads in this forum  to learn to learn from.

2)There are no places to advise you, if they could make money they would not sell these recommendations, it is more profitable for them to trade them, in their case they find it easy money to sell these  recommendations ,usually they don't work for the seller.

3)Follow the successful people in life and learn what makes them successful, they are in the 5% club.Warren Buffet ,George Soros  and Sir Alex Ferguson. I learn from the traits of these successful people

 

Deposit £100 on IG and they will allow you unlimited demo accounts expiry. Practice on demo everyday until , you make no mistakes on demo for one whole month.Open a larger live account , if you have a profitable month.All the education is free on google searches and youtube videos.

 

Hope this helps.

[rimmy2000]

Hello !

 

Good of you to get in touch with the IG Community. I think both the posters below have offered up some good advice:

 suggests going to look for extra learning and advice - I agree with this.

 

 also suggests that, as you probably gather, you have options and it’s not for anyone else to tell you where or how to set out.

 

 makes a good point and one I'll reiterate. That is, you can always continue to use a demo account whilst you are learning. 

If you drive a car, then trading can be very analogous to driving... Did you jump straight into a car and venture out on the main roads? no, you took lessons first. You learnt a couple of things:

1) how to operate the car (the instrument)

2) how to safely navigate the roads (the terrain)

 

You had to reach (and prove via exam) a certain level of competence before you were allowed to drive on your own. - and this was to safeguard yourself.

 

When you passed, did you jump into a Ferrari or 400 horse-power supercar?!! probably not. Initially you picked something simple, unsophisticated and manageable. Eventually you felt more comfortable with how to drive, and your ability and skill meant you felt more comfortable with a more modern or powerful vehicle.

 

You should see the IG Academy as this. Sort of your CBT and provisional to set out on a journey. I like to think trading can be the same.

 

You cite a ‘reading online that 82% of people make more losses than profit when spread betting’ Well this could or could not be the case. I cannot say with any degree of authority either way, but once you have opened an account – then you do have access to the ‘Ferarri’ type trading instruments: things like Oil, Foreign Exchange (Forex (or FX) ), Indices etc can be hugely exciting to trade – and yes, big profits are attainable, but it is also easy to “crash and burn”

The main soundbite that I seem to recall about why people lose on spread betting is a tendency to overtrade. By this I mean placing too many trades, and trading just out of boredom! Then it is no surprise people will lose money.

Largely, what all lot of this comes down to is a couple of things.

Risk Management – you’ll have seen from your readings that ‘Risk’ is a central tenant to trading. A good trader would never ‘put the whole lot onto ‘black’ For example, today I closed a position in a share once it went against me at -6% A loss was incurred, but a small loss.  I cover a bit of risk management here https://community.ig.com/t5/Shares-and-ETFs/Bottom-for-Shire-PLC/m-p/17361#M284

Having a strategy -This is probably what you need to consider first and foremost. Why are you here. What brought you here. What do you want to get from it. Once you know what you want from trading, you can then start to formulate an approach that works for you, you see. If you want a bit of fun, and chance to make a quick buck (or lose a quick buck) then you could throw a few quid at bitcoin. You might win, you might lose.. I don’t know.

If you have a modest pot of cash (capital) and you want to grow the money, then punting it all on Bitcoin (*and I use bitcoin because only it is flavour de jour right now) is probably not a bright idea. But looking for a low cost safe and solid share might be the right answer. Especially if it pays out dividends. I looked at some potential value opportunities here ( https://community.ig.com/t5/General-Trading-Strategy/Data-mining-finding-cheap-and-un-loved-stocks-using-IG-filters/m-p/18893#M1035) . But by no means go and buy these just because!!

When I look back to when I first bought shares- in EasyJet, by the way- in 2008(!) I was totally unaware what or why I was buying them. I just knew the company name. Was it a good company, was the price right, were the prospects bright. These questions did not occur to me.

You mention a stop loss. This is certainly part of a risk managed approach. But it won’t always get you out of troubled water. Look at something that happened today. Card Factory, you probably know it from the high st (https://www.cardfactory.co.uk/) released a Trading Update. This sent the price down about 20% at the open (gap down). By that I mean the price jumped down 20%. So a conventional stop loss here would probably not have saved you the loss this morning.

Hindsight is great, sure. But the more interesting question to the trader  is 'does the share now look attractive' ? 

 

Maybe consider some of the questions I pose, and let’s see how it goes. I am not looking to put you off – quite the opposite in fact..!

 

Does that help.

[Guest oilfxpro]

I will add to my first post 

 

A)The   I G academy  is a basic education,  you can use this with a simple method and make money.In my knowledge you can get all the knowledge on I G academy, and more by searching google .

 

B)Every trader needs 6 months of demo trading a profitable system.Unfortunately most traders will take years to find a profitable system/method, after finding one they demo trade .You don't have that much time to waste.You may /may not find profitable systems

 

 The purpose of this demo trading, is to become experienced in executing your profitable system, without mistakes Practice ,practice  and practice on demo, until you can go on auto mode , without errors.

 

On demo you will experience the the real market, and you will learn how to be disciplined and patient to follow your method.Making money is buying low and selling higher, the market will give you enough opportunities to do this.In trending markets, money on longs is made by buying high and selling even higher.

 

C)The most difficult skill , it is a mental skill, is to lose gracefully.Losing money is empowering for a good trader, when you lose doing the right things in following yourself, pat yourself on the back.Most  traders can not take a loss and this is where most traders fail, nobody likes to lose,  whey they lose they lose discipline. Practice on demo how to lose gracefully.

 

D)There is everything that you need to learn profitable trading, on this forum.You don't need to go any other forum or internet site.All the links are provided in this forum.Just look hard enough ,you will find them.I know they are here.The last places you want to learn from are private forums.

 

E)Be cynical of what others say and ask questions in this forum.

 

F)Trading is 95% psychological and 5%  ,the technical skills like price action, technical analysis and trend trading.You will experience this on demo.You will see the only enemy in trading is within.

 

G)Take on a mentor , but my knowledge is "they don't know enough to make you profitable".They don't have the skills or knowledge to make you successful, their technical knowledge is transferable, but the mental skills are not transferable .You have to practice on demo to develop these mental skills.

 

H)Don't day trade or think scalping as a trader, it has 1 % success rate.

 

I)Develop a mindset to lose gracefully , and there will be more opportunities this week or next week.

 

J)If you want advanced education, beyond the IG academy, just search for links in this forum.

 

K)The job of I G is not to make you a profitable trader, but offer you the facilities to be a profitable trader.I G are not traders , so they can not teach you profitable trading. They can offer webinars and basic education.They make money from spreads and brokerage.

 

Oilfxpro